Wednesday, 8 February 2012

"Slumdog Millionaire" and invincible orphans

Hello all! So for this entry, I'm going to talk about "Slumdog Millionaire." I love this movie because it's so cute and funny, and of course has a happy ending. It won several Oscars, and was critically acclaimed internationally.

The Movie
It's a really sweet but not-so-typical love story based around the life of a poor boy from the slums of Mumbai. By chance, he gets on the popular show Who Wants to be a Millionaire. The whole plot of the movie is about how he knows the answers to the questions, despite being uneducated, thanks to his life experiences. The romantic part? He does it all so his childhood sweetheart can see him and know how to find him. It's really cute.

What Doesn't Make Sense
Two things.

1. I guess this is sort of related to my first review of The Help, but once again, this movie has an unrealistic consequence involving human waste. In one of the early scenes, young Jamal hears that his idol, Indian superstar Amitabh Bachchan, is arriving via helicopter. But his brother Salim, angry with his brother, locks Jamal inside a make-shift public outhouse. Jamal isn't discouraged, so instead of giving up, he jumps into the waste below.

And lucky for Jamal, despite his rancid odor, he gets his idol's autograph. How he survived after the fact, I'm not sure.

2.
Later in the movie, the young boys are hitch-hiking across India via train. I say "hitch-hiking", I mean they're sitting on top of the train and sneaking in and out of the cars. These kids are from the slums, they can't afford train tickets! However, what is unrealistic is that the two boys, after unsuccessfully trying to steal some food through a window, they fall head first off of a moving train into the dirt and sand. The fall itself is actually very smart from a cinematographer's point-of-view, as their tumble through the dirt acts as time-lapse into teenagers from children. But I just don't think that someone that young (or any age, for that matter) would survive a fall from a moving train, especially head first! But hey, it was a funny way to create a transition between acts of the film.

2 comments:

Upon reading your blog, I realize now that Hollywood has desensitized me to the surrealism that is obviously in movies. I remember watching Slumdog, but it never occurred to me to question the fact that they would have been severely injured after that fall. It kind of saddens me that I am so...so....hmm...what's the word I'm looking for? Well, I can't think of it, so I will just say I can't believe that Hollywood has duped me!

About Me

I'm a 23 year old PR student who loves to watch movies and shout "THAT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN!" at the screen.
I lived without cable for 4 years during University. I used them as background noise for studying, writing essays, and sometimes helping me to fall asleep. So, I've seen A LOT of movies...
Movies are a unique way to tell a story. And I like it when there are characters I can identify with, or plots that are exciting or intense. And yet, I can't turn my logical brain off, so I constantly find that I'm picking even my favorite movies apart...This is going to be my arena to rant and rave about it.